Gospelfolk - Prodigal (1969)

I bought this for £2.50 up in Glasgow and it's apparently worth about 50 times that, so GERRITUPYE! Chilled Xian psych from Scotland with a bit of organ and fuzz, and some folky moments, but mainly in a solid 67-68 Byrdsy vein. Allegedly only 99 copies pressed, but I've heard that might be false. Some (presumably unintentional) Velvetsy vibes on this, and typical naive Christian hippy lyrics. Sorry for the crackle on my copy, but I think I'm the first to rip this so quit complaining.

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The Index - The Index (1967)

This is what you'd expect the first Velvet Underground record to sound like if you'd only read reviews from the time: raw, depressive, smack-addled garage rock for a degenerate, anomic civilisation. This record is bathed in an unrelenting cloud of grey noise, 60s reverb-obsession taken to its anti-logical conclusion. Their version of "Eight Miles High" bears about as much resemblance to the original as Husker Du's, taken the sweet out of the Byrd's bittersweet rendition and facing the horrors of Vietnam with blank resignation. The wintry doombeat excursions of "Rainy Starlet" and "Fire Eyes" remind me of Joy Division, with ahead-of-the-curve hippie disillusionment replacing post-punk angst. These guys were from Detroit, an industrial city in decline just like late 70s Manchester. There's definitely a similar noise-loving impulse to The Stooges, those other detroit pre-punk legends, but The Index are about drug-addled introspection rather than Dionysian release.

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The Psychedelic Sound of American Despair

Nice comp I put together of downer/lowner/outsider/depressive psych/garage/folk/rock etc., including the mighty Phafner (See below). I'll probably be upping full records of most of these acts over the next few days/weeks/months, so consider this a taster.

01 - Yetti Men - High Himalayas (1964)

02 - The Index - Fire Eyes (1967)

03 - CA Quintet - Colorado Mourning (1969)

04 - Alexander Skip Spence - Weighted Down (The Prison Song) (1969)

05 - Sainte Anthony's Fyre - Lone Soul Road (1970)

06 - Charles Manson - Cease to Exist (1970)

07 - Mystic Siva - Spinning a Spell (1970)

08 - Mark Melanson - Pieces in the Sand (1970)

09 - Stephen David Heitkotter - I Don't Mind (1971)

10 - Phafner - Whiskey Took my Woman (1972)

11 - Dave Bixby - Drug Song (1972)

12 - Bob Desper - Lonely Man (1974)

13 - Kenneth Higney - Look at the River (1976)

14 - Jody Koenig - In the Market (1981)

15 - Jandek - European Jewel (1982)

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P.S. Sorry for the weird formatting in this post.